Coming home?: Oakleigh Ward candidate Benjamin Djung spends most of the year in Canberra.
* Councillor's demand to scrap Oakleigh poll.
A MONASH election candidate who doesn't live in Victoria for most of the year has vowed to drop out of university to return home to Chadstone if he is elected.
Oakleigh ward candidate Benjamin Djung returns to Melbourne only twice a month, but he is standing for the Monash local government election this month.
The 19-year-old political science student confirmed in a telephone call from Canberra last week that most of his time is now spent north of the border, where he's in his first year of a bachelor of arts at the Australian National University.
But Mr Djung says that he will abandon his studies for the next four years if he's elected this month.
"If the people of Oakleigh choose to elect me, that takes precedence over my personal commitments," he said.
Despite living in Canberra for most of the year, Mr Djung is still on the Victorian state electoral roll as a Chadstone resident. Mr Djung says he was advised by a Liberal Party member he could run in the council election because he still returns to Melbourne regularly — about twice a month.
"I'm not exactly sure what the exact specifications are but I do know that if I do return back to Melbourne on a regular basis I can still be classified as living in Melbourne."
In his Weekly election questionnaire, Mr Djung refused to answer whether he was a member of a political party. But on LinkedIn — a social media website for professionals — Mr Djung lists himself as a member of the ANU Liberal Club and a member of the Liberal Party since November 2010.
The page also reveals he has worked as an intern with Queensland Liberal National Party senator Sue Boyce since May.
On social media website Facebook, Mr Djung is friends with Theo Zographos, the Liberal Party candidate for Oakleigh and the electorate officer of Liberal MP Graham Watt. The two men have been been connected on Facebook since November 2010 and share 21 mutual friends, including deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop, Mr Watt, former Liberal Party member Matthew Hammon and Tony Smith, the former parliamentary secretary for John Howard and the current federal member for Casey.
Mr Djung said he had not disclosed his Liberal Party membership because he was running as an independent candidate. "In hindsight, given how it looks now, maybe I should have disclosed it."
Should he not be elected, Mr Djung is directing his preferences to fellow Oakleigh Ward candidate Theo Zographos. His next four preferences flow to Christian Farinaccio, John Scannell, Tony Nalbant and Catherine Jane Ettery — all of whom also preference Mr Zographos.
Mr Djung says that he and Mr Zographos met through the Liberal Party.
"We're really good friends, and obviously that plays as a factor into who I preference because he's my mate, but also because he shares the same political values as I do."
Mr Djung rejected the notion that he and Mr Zographos are running mates. He insists he's a genuine candidate. "I am running with the intention to win."